Sinestesia das pessoas cegas: novas possibilidades de informação

Abstract

Synaesthesia is a condition in which a stimulus of a sensory modality evokes a secondary sensation, not stimulated. Considering that visually impaired people perceive the environment and obtain information through a strong sensory integration, it is relevant to investigate how synaesthesia may take part of such perception. This work intends to analyse how synaesthesia influences the process by which blind people obtain information from environment and the effects this perception may produce on dayly tasks and learning, considering the reality of a society in which visual information are privileged. A qualitative field research was conducted with a sample of 14 blind people and a group of 14 sighted people as controls. It was verified that blind people are more likely to present synaesthetic manifestations and that they use this condition to obtain and manipulate information internally, in tasks such as learning and composing music, mind calculation and writing; besides, synaesthetic sensations may enrich the perception of environment, making it even more pleasureful.